Organizations that market their products or services frequently compile vast collections of data pertaining to the products or services that are used in marketing and sales. This data may come from several sources including internal marketing departments and external agencies such as advertising agencies or governmental agencies. This data is distributed to clients and consumers in order to provide an accurate, consistent message about products and services offered. When several different systems, including the organization's legacy systems, are utilized to store this data there is a high probability of developing redundancy in the data stored and as a result providing inaccurate information regarding the products or services or sending inconsistent messages about products or services.
Therefore, a challenge for any organization, and specifically a large organization is the maintenance and control of all marketing related data pertaining to products or services offered by the organization. The challenge is compounded when the organization has multiple legacy systems used to store different components of the marketing information. Issues of security, redundancy, and consistency make marketing data centralization and management of critical importance in order to reach the target audience with an accurate and appropriate marketing message.
Therefore, a system is needed that will allow for management, maintenance and distribution of marketing data. A system is required that will provide a single “point of truth” for all marketing data while at the same time providing venue specific marketing data to venue specific applications. In addition, a system is needed that will converge data from several sources including sources external to the organization and including the organizations legacy systems.